ARTIST STATEMENT
“Its the eyes”. That’s the first thing people say when they view my watercolor portraits. Windows to the soul, telling a story, pulling the viewer into whatever is being shared. I fell in love with the way the pigment interacts with water on paper. Faces are my primary subjects, mostly using the color black to create black and white portraits. Often leaving background white with nothing to distract the viewer from the subject.
7 years ago I left the only career I’d ever really known as a Makeup Artist. On one hand I was losing interest and passion for my work and on the other hand, bursting knowing that there has to be more to me creatively, but what? I love the structure of faces, all faces. And then one day in our downtown library standing alone in the watercolor book section, I say aloud to myself “that’s it, Im going to learn how to paint in watercolor.
Eager to start, I began to read about women artist who looked like me. Inspired by the sculptures of Edmonia Lewis, the amazing art by Alma Thomas, the multifaceted work of Lois Mailou Jones, to more contemporary brilliant artists like Amy Sherald and Bisa Butler. I started painting.
I’m intrigued by faces I see everyday. Before I paint, I study the face, sometimes for a few days even before I do the first sketch. There’s always a second story, behind the gaze, something that’s beneath what we think we know.
Shea Moore
Self Portrait, Watercolor 10x14
When art speaks to me it comes to life, I feel like it encourages us to participate in its presence, with action (doing, thinking, creating).....to me creativity is unfiltered, untamed, unnamed, it's fluid, it's ever changing and seen in many different ways.